The hoolie on the Gartenfeldplatz a few weeks back was really quite excellent.
And not only for N’Eis’s ices.
Café Prego is a 1968 10hp Piaggio Ape 400, fitted out with an 1968 Faema E61 espresso machine and run by a very personable and smart (and smartly turned out) young guy who shall remain nameless until he calls me back for a chat by the name of Hafid Benaouda.
His back story goes like this:Parents left Morocco for Europe 45 years ago, initially for France and settled later in Germany. He works for ZDF as a journalist, studies media management part-time at the University for Applied Sciences in Mainz and got the idea for his cafémobile in Rom during a backpacking tour when he saw a Piaggio Ape being used as a vegetablemobile.
Thinks: Now THAT’s an idea.
Develops the concept, buys an Ape in Italy, does it up, finished.
He’s still working on getting established but he IS over at the Ramazan and Culture Festival, being held during the month of Ramadan in Hechtsheim.
Reason enough to zip over there.
Kaffeekommune zwei remains my chosen port of call, of course, but his espresso wasn’t half bad.
Worth keeping tabs on…
Mainz Daily Photo 
Is Hafid the handsome young man in the apron? Very enterprising individual. Our city, like many other urban centers, has been flooded with food trucks much to the dismay of restaurant owners. Office workers and we who have time on our hands have found them to be a great alliterative for lunches. I enjoy the ethnic diversity of the menus.
I knew he’d catch YOUR eye, Ms Mura. Close-up in the pipeline…